Tag: bribery

Spanish Prime Minister’s Wife Begoña Gómez Formally Charged with Influence Peddling and Bribery

Begoña Gómez, the wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has been formally charged with influence peddling and bribery.

Judge Juan Carlos Peinado of Madrid’s Investigative Court issued the indictment today. Gómez will now stand trial, marking the latest chapter in a high-profile investigation that began in April 2024 and has repeatedly rocked Spanish politics.

The case centers on allegations that Gómez leveraged her position as the wife of Spain’s leader to benefit private companies and her own professional activities while co-directing master’s programs at Madrid’s Complutense University.

Investigators have examined whether she used her influence to help secure public contracts and funding — most notably through recommendation letters for businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, whose firm won millions in government tenders.

The probe has since expanded to include claims of embezzlement of public funds involving a government-paid aide who allegedly assisted with her university work, along with misappropriation and professional intrusion.

The investigation was initially triggered by complaints from anti-corruption groups, including Manos Limpias (“Clean Hands”), and has been closely watched across Spain.

Sánchez’s leftist coalition government has repeatedly dismissed the case as a politically motivated “witch hunt” by right-wing forces. Gómez has denied any wrongdoing in prior court appearances and invoked her right not to testify in some instances.

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Supreme Court Reverses Former Cincinnati Councilor’s Bribery Conviction

The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for a former Cincinnati City Council member convicted of bribery and attempted extortion but later pardoned by President Donald Trump to have those charges dismissed in the lower courts.

The ruling came as the high court has, in recent years, been willing to overturn corruption convictions involving public officials engaging in activities some consider normal political activity. For example, in 2016, the Supreme Court vacated the conviction of the former Republican governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, for accepting gifts from a benefactor without actually taking action to benefit that person.

On April 6, the justices granted Alexander “P.G.” Sittenfeld’s petition in an unsigned order. The court did not explain its decision. No justices dissented. The court disposed of the case summarily without hearing oral arguments. 

The Supreme Court also vacated the convictions and sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to be reconsidered in light of a pending motion to dismiss the indictment against Sittenfeld.

The new ruling came after Trump pardoned Sittenfeld on May 28, 2025. This act of presidential clemency eliminated his 16-month sentence of incarceration after he had served almost five months of it.

A presidential pardon forgives federal criminal offenses and removes the legal consequences of those offenses, but does not change history by erasing the judicial finding of guilt.

The pardon covered Sittenfeld’s October 2023 conviction for bribery and attempted extortion related to an FBI-led sting operation that involved campaign contributions. Prosecutors said he accepted $20,000 in donations to his political action committee from undercover FBI agents who feigned interest in developing a specific property. Prosecutors also said Sittenfeld’s actions went beyond mere campaign fundraising to bribery that constituted an illegal quid pro quo for backing the development project.

A quid pro quo—from Latin, meaning “this for that”—is something given or received in exchange for something else.

Sittenfeld’s attorney said in the petition that he was considered “a rising star in Ohio politics,” first elected to the Cincinnati City Council in 2011 at age 27, making him the youngest person ever elected to the council.

“A defining trait of Sittenfeld’s political identity was his unwavering support for economic development. He voted for every economic development deal put in front of him while on the Council,” according to the petition.

In 2018, Sittenfeld approached a local developer to help raise money for his mayoral campaign, in order to match contributions from other developers, and “nothing about this was unlawful,” the petition said.

The government was informed about this, and the FBI organized a sting operation. The local developer contacted Sittenfeld about a specific project, which the then-elected official was already supporting, and offered to connect him with potential investors, who were actually undercover agents. The agents proposed a quid pro quo, saying if Sittenfeld agreed to back the project, they would donate to his campaign, the petition said.

The petition said Sittenfeld filed a motion after the conviction for post-trial relief, saying the evidence at trial was not sufficient to prove an “explicit” quid pro quo, as required by McCormick v. United States (1991). In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that the receipt of a campaign contribution was not a federal crime unless the payment was part of an “explicit quid pro.”

The federal district court ruled that the evidence was “ambiguous” at best and believed that, despite that, the jury could still surmise an “explicit” exchange from the record. The court sentenced Sittenfeld to 16 months and fined him $40,000. A divided panel of the Sixth Circuit upheld the conviction, finding the jury was allowed to conclude based on the ambiguous evidence that he had accepted an illegal bribe.

In the petition, Sittenfeld’s attorney urged the Supreme Court to take up the case, saying candidates “routinely raise money based on pledges of official action: ‘Donate to me and I will vote to repeal the law my opponent supported!’ ‘Send me a campaign check and I will cut your taxes—I can’t do it without you!’”

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Trump pardons Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he is issuing a “full and unconditional” pardon to Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, using a lengthy social media post to accuse the Biden administration of targeting political opponents, even within its own party.

“One of the clearest examples of this was when Crooked Joe used the FBI and DOJ to ‘take out’ a member of his own Party after Highly Respected Congressman Henry Cuellar bravely spoke out against Open Borders, and the Biden Border ‘Catastrophe,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!” Trump continued, referring to bribery charges brought against the congressman in 2024.

Responding to the pardon on X, Cuellar thanked Trump “for his tremendous leadership and for taking the time to look at the facts.”

“This pardon gives us a clean slate. The noise is gone. The work remains. And I intend to meet it head on,” he wrote.

The 11-term congressman, who filed for reelection Wednesday as a Democrat, has been likely to face a competitive reelection in a Trump-won district that Republicans are targeting — making the president’s pardon a puzzling move as his party tries to defend its majority in 2026.

Asked Wednesday if he’ll change parties, Cuellar told reporters on Capitol Hill, “No, like I said, nothing has changed.”

And Cuellar said he did not cut a deal with the White House to earn the pardon. “No, no,” he told CNN’s Manu Raju when pressed on the topic later Wednesday. The congressman said he “didn’t know that this was coming,” adding he would go to a White House Christmas party next week and would thank the president personally.

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MS law enforcement officers, deputies indicted in drug conspiracy

Twenty people, including more than a dozen former or current Mississippi law enforcement officers and deputies, were charged in connection with a drug trafficking conspiracy on Thursday, according to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Mississippi.

According to court documents, Brandon Addison, Javery Howard, Milton Gaston, Truron Grayson, Bruce Williams, Sean Williams, Dexture Franklin, Wendell Johnson, Marcus Nolan, Aasahn Roach, Jeremy Sallis, Torio Chaz Wiseman, Pierre Lakes, Derrik Wallace, Marquivious Bankhead, Chaka Gaines, Martavis Moore, Jamario Sanford, Marvin Flowers, and Dequarian Smith are all charged with drug distribution.

The indictment showed that several defendants included in the indictment had local addresses, including one with a Southaven address, three in Memphis, and one in Horn Lake.

They said that 14 of these people were Mississippi local law enforcement officials. Two were Mississippi Sheriffs: Milton Gaston of Washington County and Bruce Williams of Humphreys County. And 12 are officers.

The attorney’s office said that if they are convicted, a federal district court judge will determine the sentence.

According to court documents, the defendants were employed by an FBI member who posed as a member of a Mexican drug cartel to protect the transportation of drugs through the Mississippi Delta counties along Highway 61 and would eventually go into Memphis.

“I think you can probably characterize this as a sting, but again the original complaints that began the investigation were from drug dealers,” said Clay Joiner, United States Attorney of Northern District of Mississippi.

Drug dealers, who officials said complained about having to pay bribes. The highest was more than $30,000.

Officials said each defendant thought they were transporting 25 kilograms of cocaine or other drugs.  

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MSNBC’s Tom Homan ‘Scandal’ Has All The Earmarks Of A Hoax

fter nearly a decade of hoaxes — from Russiagate to Ukraine, from impeachment sagas to the circus around Brett Kavanaugh — the American public has been conditioned to expect another “bombshell” headline every few months. Now, right on schedule, a new one has emerged. This time, the target is Tom Homan, former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and now the border security czar in the Trump administration.

MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian and Carol Leonnig reported on Saturday that Homan had supposedly been ensnared in a sting operation run by the Biden-era Department of Justice and FBI in 2024. According to their story, undercover FBI agents posed as business executives seeking help in obtaining border security contracts. MSNBC claimed Homan accepted “$50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration.”

Those are MSNBC’s exact words: “indicated he could help.” Not “said,” not “confirmed,” not “promised,” not “agreed.” Just “indicated.” That slipperiness alone should set off alarm bells. In legal and journalistic terms, it means nothing. At its most generous, it could be seen as a subjective impression. More realistically, it appears to be a deliberate attempt to insinuate wrongdoing without citing any evidence.

Tellingly, MSNBC’s story contains no direct quotes from Homan at all. When it references the alleged recording of his interactions with undercover agents, it only says that “hidden cameras [were] recording the scene at a meeting spot in Texas.” There is no transcript, no quotations, and no evidence of what Homan actually said. If Homan had said anything remotely incriminating, MSNBC would right now be airing it on a loop.

Perhaps the most glaring problem with the story is that if Tom Homan really had done anything wrong, why didn’t the Biden DOJ bring charges? This wasn’t Trump’s Justice Department in 2024. It was Merrick Garland’s DOJ and Christopher Wray’s FBI. If they had any evidence that Homan took a bribe or engaged in corruption, they would have prosecuted him instantly and with fanfare, especially given his reputation as one of the toughest immigration enforcers in the country.

Instead, the file was carried over into the Trump administration, where, according to a statement issued by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, it was “subjected to a full review by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors” before being closed. That should have been the end of it. Yet someone has now leaked this non-story to MSNBC to create yet another hoax.

Which brings us to the messenger: Ken Dilanian.

Dilanian’s reputation in Washington is notorious. During the Russiagate years, he earned the nickname “Fusion Ken” for his uncanny habit of publishing exactly the kind of stories Fusion GPS, the Clinton-funded smear shop behind the Steele dossier, wanted in print. Discovery in lawsuits after the collapse of the collusion hoax uncovered emails showing Fusion GPS directing journalists to run stories, sometimes even giving them the exact framing to use. While Dilanian’s name did not appear in those specific exchanges, his track record speaks for itself. He was one of the most reliable megaphones for whatever narrative Clinton operatives wanted out there.

And that’s not all. Dilanian also sent draft articles to CIA officials for prepublication approval, even offering to make edits based on the agency’s feedback. In other words, he has literally acted as a mouthpiece for the intelligence community.

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FAIL: The Left’s Supposed ‘Bribery Scandal’ About Tom Homan Has Already Flamed Out

Liberal media and leftists on social media have been pushing a ‘bribery scandal’ about Tom Homan for the last few days and the story has already flamed out.

Lots of people knew this was nothing more than another hit piece on a Trump ally and completely dismissed it. Megyn Kelly’s response was particularly epic.

The problem for the left is that this is all so old, people can see a manufactured hit job like this coming from a mile away.

Townhall reports:

The Media’s Hit Piece on Tom Homan Evaporated Quickly. Here’s Why.

What the hell is even that? There were other reasons why this hit piece was drowned out, not least because no one cares about what MSNBC says. It’s another example of the legacy media dying—everyone is tired of their fake news and ‘scoops’ that are nothing burgers. Take this ‘big scoop’ the anti-Trump outlet had about Border Czar Tom Homan, who allegedly accepted $50,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents, but Trump’s DOJ shut down that investigation.

The copy for the social media push seemed damning, but it’s another fake news circus. Also, this investigation wasn’t a Trump DOJ safari. It was a fishing expedition under Biden’s Justice Department goons.

Townhall points to MSNBC’s own reporting:

The FBI and the Justice Department planned to wait to see whether Homan would deliver on his alleged promise once he became the nation’s top immigration official. But the case indefinitely stalled soon after Donald Trump became president again in January, according to six sources familiar with the matter. In recent weeks, Trump appointees officially closed the investigation, after FBI Director Kash Patel requested a status update on the case, two of the people said…

In a statement provided to MSNBC, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “This matter originated under the previous administration and was subjected to a full review by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing. The Department’s resources must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not baseless investigations. As a result, the investigation has been closed.”

Rest assured, the left will invent a new scandal about another one of Trump’s people next week, and then another. This is what they do. They are bankrupt of ideas, so they just attack again and again.

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DOJ ended probe of ‘border czar’ Tom Homan for allegedly accepting $50K in FBI sting: Sources

The Department of Justice shut down an investigation involving President Donald Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, in which he had been recorded allegedly accepting cash from FBI agents posing as business executives, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

The sting operation, which stemmed from a broader public corruption probe that did not initially target Homan, led agents to an encounter in which they recorded Homan allegedly accepting a bag containing $50,000 in cash while agreeing to potentially help the men obtain government contracts in the event Trump won the 2024 election, the sources said.

The investigation, started during the Biden administration, was handed over to the Trump administration. Officials briefed Justice Department leadership about it in the early days of Trump’s presidency as part of their ongoing efforts to vet personnel who had been appointed to senior leadership posts in his administration, the sources said.

Investigators at the time were still working to determine whether Homan would have followed through on arranging the government contracts, as some in the Justice Department questioned the legal viability of charges in a scenario where Homan had proposed the government contract when Trump’s election victory wasn’t yet guaranteed, according to the sources.

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Indicted House Democrat BUSTED for Dirty Money—AGAIN

In South Texas, a growing scandal involving indicted Congressman Henry Cuellar is exposing just how deep the rot runs in America’s political institutions—and how little Democrats or the media care about election integrity.

Cuellar, who represents Texas’s 28th Congressional District, is under federal indictment for accepting more than $600,000 in foreign bribes from a Mexican bank and a state-run oil company in Azerbaijan. 

Prosecutors allege that Cuellar and his wife personally profited from years of secret deals, using their public positions to advance the interests of foreign entities. 

Adding to the gravity, three of Cuellar’s top aides are now cooperating with the Department of Justice.

Yet despite facing trial, Cuellar was not removed from the 2024 ballot. 

Instead, he ran for re-election and supposedly defeated Republican challenger Jay Furman in a district Donald Trump carried by seven points. 

Somehow, Cuellar won by five points—a shocking 12-point swing.

Furman submitted more than 80 affidavits from voters who said his name was missing from their ballots. 

The Texas Fourth Court of Appeals ordered a forensic review and instructed Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina to conduct it “immediately.” 

Judge Tijerina refused.

The situation quickly escalated from suspicious to outrageous. After blocking the ballot inspection, Judge Tijerina announced his own planned campaign for Congress—entering the same race he had just helped suppress. 

In any functioning democracy, such a conflict of interest would end careers. In South Texas, it simply became another chapter in a growing scandal.

Financial records make the picture worse. 

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Democrat Indicted for Bribes Reappointed to Key Spending Committee

In one of the most glaring examples of Washington’s broken standards, Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) has been reappointed to the powerful Appropriations Conference Committee—despite being under federal indictment for bribery and corruption. 

The move signals not only poor judgment but also a complete disregard for accountability in Congress.

Cuellar, who represents Texas’s 28th Congressional District, was indicted earlier this year on charges that he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from foreign companies and governments in exchange for political favors. 

According to federal prosecutors, he and his wife received payments funneled through shell companies tied to entities in Azerbaijan and Mexico. 

The Department of Justice detailed how Cuellar allegedly used his position to influence U.S. policy while personally enriching himself. 

These charges are among the most serious faced by any sitting member of Congress in decades.

Yet, instead of stepping back while the legal process unfolds, Cuellar is being rewarded with a seat at the table where the nation’s spending decisions are made. 

The Appropriations Conference Committee is no ordinary assignment. It brings together members of the House and Senate to finalize government funding bills—deciding how trillions of taxpayer dollars will be spent. 

For decades, this committee has been considered one of the most influential in Congress.

The irony is staggering. At a time when trust in government is near historic lows, the Democrat party has decided to empower a member facing corruption charges with direct control over how federal funds are allocated. 

This is not just tone-deaf; it undermines every claim Democrats make about protecting “integrity” in government.

Cuellar’s defenders point to his long tenure in Congress and his reputation as a centrist. First elected in 2004, he has positioned himself as a moderate voice on issues such as border security, veterans’ services, and agriculture. 

His district, which spans from Laredo up toward San Antonio, undoubtedly benefits from his seniority. But the fact remains: the allegations against him are not minor. Bribery, foreign influence, and abuse of office go to the heart of whether a representative can be trusted with public responsibility.

The message this sends to the public is devastating. 

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Major NYC strip club group bribed state auditor with lap dances, avoided $8M in taxes: AG

What a bunch of boobs.

A major strip club group bribed a state auditor — including with lap dances — to avoid paying more than $8 million in New York City sales taxes over the last 14 years, prosecutors charged Tuesday.

The State Attorney General’s Office unsealed a 79-count criminal indictment against the company, RCI, and five of its executives, accusing them of engaging in a naked, tax fraud scheme.

The affair was so brazen, a top RCI accountant even allegedly made at least 10 trips from Texas to New York to treat the former auditor at the company’s Manhattan jiggle joints, Rick’s Cabaret, Vivid Cabaret and Hoops Cabaret and Sports Bar, court papers state.

“RCI’s executives shamelessly used their strip clubs to bribe their way out of paying millions of dollars in taxes,” said AG Letitia James. “I will always take action to fight corruption and ensure everyone pays their fair share.”

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